Chesapeake Bay News

Archives: June 2010

Richmond, Virginia’s Capitol Square is about to become one of the most environmentally friendly capitols in the nation, with a series of green construction projects set to begin this summer.

The projects, including a retrofit of the capitol grounds and select streets and alleys, aim to reduce polluted stormwater runoff to the James River, a major tributary of the Chesapeake Bay.

The “Greening Virginia’s Capitol” project was developed by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), the Virginia Department of General Services (DGS), the City of Richmond and the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay. The project, in the works for several years but put on hold due to budget cuts, is being funded by a $798,988 grant from the Chesapeake Bay Program and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

A major goal of the project is to let stormwater slowly infiltrate into the ground, rather than flowing freely across pavement and directly into the James River. Rain gardens and pervious pavement will absorb and filter runoff, cleaning it before it can reach groundwater supplies.

All phases of the project are anticipated to be completed by spring 2011, when experts estimate that overall stormwater runoff from Capitol Square will be reduced by 64 percent. Phosphorus runoff will be reduced by 69 percent and nitrogen will be reduced by 70 percent.

The first phase of the project is to “green” of alleys at 5th and 12th streets. Other phases will include:

A rain garden installed on the bus loop

Rain gardens installed along portions of 9th and 10th streets

A rain garden installed at the Bell Tower

Pervious pavement installed to replace the steps leading down the hill from the Washington Equestrian Statue

Pervious sidewalk installed by the front of the Edgar Allen Poe statue

The Greening Virginia’s Capitol project be used by Virginia DCR as a model of how to reduce stormwater runoff in an urban setting.

The project will also show citizens and officials throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed how simple changes can make a huge difference in the amount of polluted runoff that reaches the Bay and its streams, creeks and rivers.

Greening Virginia’s Capitol has also been selected as one of the first landscapes to participate in the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES), a new program testing the nation’s first rating system for green landscape design, construction and maintenance.

CBF actively accepts members into its organization and is an advocacy group, whereas the Chesapeake Bay Program is a partnership among government and non-government organizations working on the policy and regulations of Chesapeake Bay restoration. CBF works closely with the Chesapeake Bay Program on a number of issues and goal areas.

For more information about how the Chesapeake Bay Program works, go here for a listing of partners, organizational structure and actions.

Do you have a question about the Chesapeake Bay? Ask us and we might choose your question for the next Question of the Week! You can also ask us a question via Twitter by sending a reply to @chesbayprogram! Be sure to follow us there for all the latest in Bay news and events!

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will expand outreach and innovative conservation practices on farmland in three small watersheds in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia to show how focusing funding, sound science and strong partnerships in small geographic areas can help improve the health of local waterways and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay.

The three small watersheds, called “showcase watersheds,” are:

The 23,000-acre upper Chester River watershed on Maryland’s Eastern Shore

The 34,000-acre Conewago Creek watershed in central Pennsylvania

The 67,000-acre Smith Creek watershed in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley

USDA’s goal is to reach out to all of the farmers in each watershed to learn about the types of voluntary conservation practices they are currently using and to let them know about opportunities for financial and technical assistance.

Each watershed has its own restoration goals and will receive additional funding and staff to help increase the use of agricultural conservation practices on local farms. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is also contributing funding, and the U.S. Geological Survey will conduct local water monitoring. Local watershed groups and nonprofits are also involved in the efforts.

The showcase watersheds concept is part of the USDA’s plan to implement new conservation practices on four million acres of farmland in the Bay watershed by 2025, a commitment included in the federal government’s recently released Strategy for Restoration and Protection of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

“The showcase watersheds strengthen USDA’s commitment to funding priority conservation practices in places that will do the most good for water quality in the Bay and its tributaries,” said USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan at an event to announce the showcase watersheds.

The USDA’s Bay watershed work is funded in large part by the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Initiative, which was established in the 2008 Farm Bill and provides $188 million from 2009-2012.

Visit the USDA’s website for more information about the showcase watersheds and other Chesapeake Bay activities.

We've received a lot of questions lately about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and if it will affect the Chesapeake Bay. The general scientific consensus right now is that it is unlikely that oil from the Gulf will reach the Chesapeake Bay, but experts continue to monitor the situation to stay ahead of any changes in the oil's projected path.

A few Bay Program partners have posted information about the oil spill in relation to the Chesapeake Bay:

The Maryland Department of the Environment has set up a Gulf Oil Spill Emergency Response page with detailed information about Maryland's monitoring efforts and cleanup response capabilities.

For more information about the Gulf oil spill, visit the following websites:

Deepwater Horizon Response and Restoration - The official site for the Unified Command acting in response to the oil spill. The site includes releases from all the federal agencies participating in the response.

GeoPlatform.gov/GulfResponse - An interactive map that displays near real-time information about the response effort. The map integrates the latest federal data on the oil spill's trajectory and includes fishery area closures, wildlife data, pinpointed locations of oiled shorelines, current positions of deployed research ships, and more.